The Comic Book Club: “Fables” and “Thor: The Mighty Avenger”

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GRAEME: Let’s get this out of the way first off: Chris Samnee’s art in Thor: The Mighy Avenger vol. 1 is REALLY good. I picked this up in singles – in part because I got the first issue as a freebie at this year’s San Diego, I must admit – and it took me a couple of issues before I went from Samnee fan to complete acolyte. But even if the writing in this book were terrible, it’d be worth buying for the art alone: There’s such a wonderful economy of line that helps with the acting of the characters (I love his Jane Foster in particular), it’s so clean and so easy to read. Matt Wilson’s colors hit just the right tone, as well. If nothing else, this book looks lovely.

Writingwise, it also took me a couple of issues to get completely won over – in fact, I might not have gotten totally on Roger Langridge’s bus until the third chapter here, with Ant-Man and the Wasp. But re-reading it, I love the understated charm and humor that’s going on here, and the leisurely pace. As an introduction to Thor and his universe – maybe even the Marvel Universe as a whole – I think this book works really well, in part because of Langridge’s sensibilities. I wish the collection was slightly longer – although, at four issues, it’s exactly half of the sadly-canceled series – if only because the next couple of issues really build out the mythology some more, and really enrich what’s in here, but the small chunk that you get with this tiny (I actually really love the slightly smaller dimensions of this collection, somewhere between regular Marvel comics and manga) book is still one of the most enjoyable books Marvel has put out in a long time, if y’ask me.

DOUGLAS: I’m not totally sold on the dimensions of the collection: I understand that little hands are little, but somehow this doesn’t click with me the way that either full-size comics or Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane-size digests do. But that’s the only thing I’m not sold on at this point. When people complain that there aren’t kid-friendly superhero serials any more, I want to stick books exactly like this in their hands: stylish as all get out, charming, with done-in-one stories connected by a broader narrative through-line.

(More on Techland: The Comic Book Club: Thor #615)

So, of course, this series dies the death of zero promotion. I had no idea it was coming out before the first issue hit, and didn’t catch that it was supposed to be an all-ages title starting at the beginning of Thor’s presence in the Marvel Universe (rather than, say, just a second monthly Thor-in-the-616 book) until I actually read it. And that’s a real pity: I can see a good mass-appeal Thor movie opening up an audience for a series like this, but otherwise it really would’ve taken a push. (Just think if this had been the ’60s incarnation: it would’ve run for years.)

I also wouldn’t have guessed that Langridge had a series like this in him. I know and love his work from the comics he’s done on his own and with his brother (Art D’Ecco, Fred the Clown, etc.), and his Muppet Show stuff is probably the best possible Muppet Show comic book anyone could do (it helps that he’s got such a vaudeville-inspired voice in a lot of his work). This is a different Langridge, though: uncynical, clear-eyed, inviting. I agree that the story doesn’t quite click until the third issue, but after that, he hits a completely charming tone: once it’s clear that the series is about a fallen god redeeming himself by exploring a world of wonders very different from his own, it all comes together.

Samnee’s artwork, as you noted,  is just wonderful–it’s got a look that’s closer to “adapted from an animated series” than “default superhero comics 2010,” but not particularly close to either. It’s all about the well-chosen angle, the Kirbyesque line deployed outside of Kirbyesque style, character acting that carries the story. If he can do 23 pages of something this solidly constructed and elegant every month, which it sure looks like he can, I really hope his next gig can put him in front of a lot more eyes. And he and Langridge do seem to have some fine chemistry here.

EVAN: When I first heard this book was coming out, I thought it was another one of Marvel’s “movie warehouse” titles. You know how they flood the channel with books in advance of a movie based on their characters coming out, so that they’ll have plenty of trades in bookstores when the film hits? It’s not a bad strategy in and of itself, but some highly dubious work comes out as a result of it. So, I doubted Thor: The Mighty Avenger would be any good. I also hadn’t heard of Langridge or Samnee before, which didn’t help.

Still, I picked up the Double Rainbow reprint special they did and was hooked immediately. It’s a classic stranger-in-a-strange-land story, but I loved how Thor’s more than just a big, dumb lug, and how bits from the character’s established history get woven into a nice backdrop. The character work is so strong here: making Thor so headstrong yet still likable, the secondary folks (security guard, old coot, women in the clothing store) that throb with personality and deft use of continuity.

Mr. Hyde, who’s always been a B-list villain at best, gets one of those charming interpretations that can turn everyone’s notion of an old character around. Man, that moment when Wasp tells Ant-Man that she’d hate for him to lose control is one of those perfect uses of continuity that rewards people who knows what happens later yet still works on its own. (Of course, one might argue that only people who know what happpens later are buying this book, even as it’s the kind of comic that could’ve brought in new readers.)

(More on Techland: The Comic Book Club: “Batwoman: Elegy” and “Werewolves of Montpellier”)

Jane, too, gets a retrofit that gives her and Thor a great meet-cute. Speaking of romance story devices, Langridge does a bit of homage to Lee & Kirby’s romance comic work by figuring the falling-in-love stuff so prominently in the book. Going back to those Journey into Mystery issues they fold into this trade, it’s pretty apparent how the “True Love” work bleeds into the early Marvel superhero years. It did surprise me, though, to find the bits of dry humor Lee and Kirby slipped in there. The soldiers dismissing Don Blake at the end of #83 and Thor’s underwater secret identity save in #84 are pretty funny.

And the callbacks to that are what really make TTMA work. Thor‘s generally been a serious book. Even in storied runs like Walt Simonson’s, the funny tended to happen around Thor, not through him. But Langridge’s take is so light-hearted without feeling flimsy that it carves a little niche for itself. (Fraction’s doing a lot with humor in the mainline Thor book, too.) I’ll echo you both on Samnee’s awesomeness. The character moments that Langridge achieves would be impossible without him. So many great ones: Thor looking askance at the answering machine when Jane calls for help and Jane’s bashful posture when Volstagg introduces himself. Just great stuff.

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